32 Articles

Thursday, November 19, 2009
40 Groups Disagree with USDA's Latest BSE Court Submission; Agency Poised to Conform to Global Edict Instead of Domestic
(8 comments) On Nov. 17, 2009, R-CALF USA and 39 other groups sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to express their serious concerns about the agency's status submission.

Monday, November 2, 2009
Stop the Hemorrhaging in U.S. Live Cattle Industry: Producers to President, Congress, USDA and Justice
“The U.S. cattle industry, literally, is the last frontier within the U.S. livestock and poultry industries...It is the only remaining major livestock sector that is not already nearly completely vertically integrated by the mega-meatpackers and processors from birth-to-plate"but this distinction cannot last long under the ongoing and unbearable financial losses plaguing its independent participants.”

Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Canada, Mexico $1.3 Billion Short of Claiming COOL Harm Group Tells USDA, USTR
R-CALF USA's letter contends that economic harm must be measured from a balanced trade relationship and explains that the reason Canada and Mexico cannot begin to measure an economic harm “is because these combined countries continue to enjoy the unmitigated, windfall spoils emanating from an imbalanced trade relationship with the United States, to the tune of $1.3 billion annually.”

Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Group Calls Justice Department's Refusal to Block JBS Mega-Merger A Broken Presidential Promise
In our opinion, the Justice Department's action in refusing to fully investigate the antitrust implications of the unprecedented merger between JBS and Pilgrim's Pride ... when these firms both control and market substitutable, competing proteins, is an irrepressible defiance of President Obama's promise to ensure competitive markets for the nation's farmers and ranchers,

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Group Calls NCBA's Attack on COOL Downright Deceptive
Sixteen R-CALF USA officers, directors and committee chairs today sent a strong five-page letter to the NCBA calling NCBA's public response to Canada's Oct. 7, 2009, announcement that it would pursue a complaint at the WTO against the United States' COOL law “intolerable, irresponsible and deceptive, as well as a tremendous disservice to the hard-working men and women who comprise the U.S. live cattle industry.”

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Yet Again, Canada Tries to File WTO Complaint Against U.S. COOL Law
The Canadian government is seeking a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement process over the U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. A WTO panel is scheduled to hear the request at the Oct. 23, 2009, meeting of WTO's Dispute Settlement Body.

Friday, October 9, 2009
Cattle Producers Could Lose Up to $89/Head if JBS Acquires Pilgrim's Pride
“A loss of anywhere from $7.50 per head to $89.38 per head to the U.S. live cattle industry would have severe ramifications, particularly given the long-run lack of profitability faced by U.S. cattle feeders who have experienced 22 consecutive months of horrendous financial losses,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

Saturday, October 3, 2009
93 Groups to Ag Approps Conference Committee: Eliminate NAIS Funding Altogether
NAIS is a far-reaching 3-step program that calls for every person who owns even one livestock or poultry animal to register their property, tag each animal when it leaves the property it was born on, and report a long list of movements to a database within 24 hours, and these provisions apply whether or not that animal is used for commercial purposes, which will impact millions of animal owners,

Monday, September 28, 2009
Group Urges Justice Department to Block JBS/Pilgrim's Pride Merger
In an effort to protect and preserve a competitive market for independent U.S. cattle producers, R-CALF USA this week sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that it block the proposed merger of Brazilian-owned JBS S.A. (JBS) and Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (Pilgrim's Pride).

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Group Urges U.S. Trade Representative to Reject Free Trade Agreement with Colombia
In formal comments filed this week, R-CALF USA urged the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to reject the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia (U.S.-Colombia FTA). A notice and request for comments on the proposed FTA was published in the Federal Register by USTR in July, with comments due September 15.

Monday, September 21, 2009
Group Calls Message to Congress by NCBA, AFBF, and W. Ron DeHaven, D.V.M., Unscientific, Irresponsible, and Deceptive
R-CALF USA today letter to members on the Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Committee urging them to disregard the deceptive plea jointly made by a group that includes the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), and W. Ron DeHaven, D.V.M., whom are seeking to introduce the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus on the U.S. mainland for research purposes.

Saturday, September 12, 2009
Group Implores Senate to Reject House Version of Food Safety Bill, Start Anew to Genuinely Improve Food Safety
We have communicated our reasons for opposing H.R. 2749 by explaining the serious and significant flaws in the current U.S. food safety system that the House version would build upon,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry. “In fact, any attempt to remedy our food safety problems by building upon the three failed components currently in place will have the opposite effect that the House intended.

Friday, August 28, 2009
Group Requests Separate Investigations into Packer's Use of Imported Canadian Cattle
Based on information received from R-CALF USA member-ranchers in Washington state, R-CALF USA on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, made a written request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate a potential violation of USDA requirements for the importation into the U.S. of Canadian cattle.

Friday, August 14, 2009
Yet Again, Group Urges USDA to Withdraw NAIS Plans
In formal comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Aug. 3, 2009, R-CALF USA yet again pointed out the errors of the agency's ways if it continues to force upon independent U.S. cattle producers its National Animal Identification System (NAIS): an onerous burden of untold financial implications and an unconstitutional violation of every citizen's private property rights and liberty.

Saturday, August 8, 2009
Group Requests CFTC to Reform Cattle Markets; Joins Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition
Included in R-CALF USA’s letter to the CFTC are requests to prevent packers from engaging in speculative short selling as a strategy to depress cash cattle prices, impose aggregate speculative position limits across all markets, and ensure that speculative position limits be set by physical hedgers. The CMOC letter explains that the domination by financial speculators “has undermined the commodity markets’ function...

Saturday, August 8, 2009
Group Praises Announcement by USDA, Justice Department to Explore Antitrust, Anticompetitive Activities in Ag Markets
In the wake of President Obama’s campaign promise to prevent anticompetitive behavior against family farmers and ranchers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) today announced that both Departments will work together to accomplish this important goal.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009
USDA Partners with Private Company to Help Sell Ear Tags to U.S. Farmers and Ranchers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has partnered with Allflex, a private multinational firm that manufactures and sells ear tags in more than seven countries, to help Allflex market, promote and sell ear tags to U.S. cattle producers.

Saturday, July 25, 2009
USDA Kowtows to Canada's Threats, Denies U.S. Citizens Truthful Information About the Origins of Their Food
"We are now witness to the unconscionable actions of a federal agency that has ignored its duty to defend our constitutionally passed COOL law, ignored the public interest and the will of Congress, and has, instead, kowtowed to the special interests of the Canadian government, all to the detriment of U.S. citizens," said Thornsberry.

Saturday, July 18, 2009
Group Talks Cattle, Beef Issues with Senate Finance Trade Team
R-CALF USA recently met with members of the Senate Finance Committee Trade Team of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to discuss trade issues important to the U.S. cattle industry, as the trade team traveled throughout Montana to discuss trade issues of importance to Montana industries. R-CALF USA presented the team with its "Overview of International Trade and the U.S. Cattle and Beef Industries."

Thursday, July 9, 2009
Schumacher Loses Over $260,000 from Cattle Sales to Tyson; Now Tyson Wants Schumacher's Home
Herreid, S.D., rancher and cattle feeder Herman Schumacher has suffered losses exceeding $260,000 from the sale of three pens of cattle (984 head) sold to Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. (Tyson) since January 1, 2009, yet Schumacher's three pens of cattle were top performers. "The only conclusion to be reached is that the cattle market is being manipulated by the dominant meatpackers.

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Canada, Mexico Have No Standing to Bring Complaint Against U.S. COOL Law
R-CALF USA has filed formal comments with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to emphasize that the group believes it is fundamentally contrary to the U.S. Constitution for USTR to agree that foreign governments – specifically Canada and Mexico – have any standing whatsoever to bring a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against our constitutionally passed mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tyson Rejects Group's Appeal for Moral Decency;
"Only in the ivory tower boardroom of a multibillion dollar company, where corporate executives are completely disconnected from cattle producers and food consumers, could a strategy like this be concocted," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "To reverse its tarnished image...Tyson has now decided to use money extracted from Schumacher to help feed other farmers/ranchers who are facing economic disaster largely because of Tyson

Monday, June 29, 2009
Group Responds to Tyson Complaint Letter;
(5 comments) On the day R-CALF USA conducted its June 26, 2009, news conference before a crowd of about 150 in the small town of Herreid, S.D., to highlight Tyson Fresh Meat's (Tyson's) seizure of the home of Herreid, S.D., rancher and cattle feeder Herman Schumacher, Tyson faxed R-CALF USA a complaint letter.

Thursday, June 25, 2009
News Conference to address seizure of Herman Schumacher's home by Tyson Fresh Meats.
(1 comments) The news conference will highlight the ongoing injustice against Schumacher; will demonstrate that the Administration, Congress and the U.S. judicial system have utterly failed to protect the safety and security of our nation's food supply; and, will reveal that the concentrated beef packing industry has accumulated such untouchable power that it can freely engage in anticompetitive and antitrust behavior...

Friday, June 12, 2009
Group Submits Supplemental Comments
(1 comments) On May 15, 2009, Canada detected its 17th case of BSE, which is its 10th case born after the OTM Rule's import eligibility date, meaning that these 10 infected animals could have been imported into the U.S. prior to exhibiting symptoms of BSE. In response to this latest Canadian BSE case, R-CALF USA submitted its second set of supplemental comments to USDA last week to demonstrate that the key assumptions made by USDA...

Thursday, May 21, 2009
USDA's Lax Import Rules Expose US Cattle to Mad Cow Disease
(3 comments) Canada, which lacks mandatory testing, just announced its 17th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) since 2003. Under current USDA rules, these higher-risk cattle are allowed to commingle with the U.S. herd, enter the U.S. food supply and enter the non-ruminant U.S. animal feed system. The USDA must protect the U.S. cattle herd, and consumers, from the introduction of BSE.

Thursday, May 14, 2009
NAIS will Reduce Competition in U.S. Cattle Industry
NAIS will reduce, if not eliminate, competition in the U.S. cattle and beef industries by granting meatpackers access to proprietary information now held by those markets and feedlots, vis-�-vis the 15-digit identifier. Red this op-ed to find out more.

Friday, May 1, 2009
Western Ag Reporter Attacks Cattle Producers; Infers Organization Compromised Member Policy on NAIS
(2 comments) Western Ag Reporter Editor, Linda Grosskopf, published a headline that reads, "NAIS...Has R-CALF had a change of mind? If so, what about their policy?" With this headline, Grosskopf publicly – and incorrectly – raises the specter that because R-CALF USA supports the expansion of the preexisting brucellosis-type identification system the organization has reversed its strong opposition to NAIS.

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Group Applauds FDA Decision to Immediately Implement Enhanced U.S. Feed Ban
(1 comments) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) resisted efforts by agribusiness interests to delay implementation of an enhanced U.S. feed ban designed to strengthen safeguards against bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) for both consumers and cattle. The enhanced feed ban will be implemented on schedule, though full compliance will not be expected until October.

Saturday, April 18, 2009
To USDA: NAIS an Invasive, Unlawful Encumbrance on Commerce
NAIS is a radical departure from the highly successful, preexisting disease programs and represents an unwarranted expansion of government agency power that R-CALF USA believes is prohibited under our Constitution.

Saturday, April 18, 2009
FDA Plans to Break Food Safety Promise to America
(2 comments) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to break its promise to American consumers to timely upgrade the animal feed ban designed to protect U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd against the heightened risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease).

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Group Brings Vilsack 8-Point Alternative to NAIS
In formal correspondence sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today, R-CALF USA has recommended an 8-point alternative course to the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS), originally forced on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) by the previous Administration.